


Taken

by Lotornomiko



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Dark Hook warnings, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, F/M, Kidnapping, slight dub con for talks of rape
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-24
Updated: 2015-05-24
Packaged: 2018-04-01 00:48:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 22,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3999592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lotornomiko/pseuds/Lotornomiko
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hook's come up with what he thinks is the ultimate revenge on Rumplestiltskin. But making Belle fall in love with him isn't going to be as easy as Hook thinks, nor will he come away unscathed from their encounters. Hook and Belle, some Belle and Rumplesiltskin mentions, Dark Hook, slight dub con warnings.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. One

Disclaimer Time: I do not own Once Upon A Time or any of the characters from that show. I am merely borrowing them for a time. I also do not make any money off of this story. It is done merely for entertainment purposes.  
\-----Michelle 

 

It wasn't her first time being kidnapped. In fact, it happened to Belle often enough that one might think she was making a habit of it. Regina, her father, even the situation with Rumplestiltskin could have been considered an abduction of a sorts. Of course that first time with Rumple, she had MADE the decision to go with him, all the while knowing she'd be nothing more than his captive. To do with as his please. 

Funny how things changed. Once, a long, long time ago, Belle would have been horrified at the thought of Rumplestiltskin having his way with her. Now however, the idea was something that made her quiver in excitement, a fantasy she sometimes took out and pondered in the late hours of the night. 

But now was not the time. No matter how much Belle enjoyed thinking about the things she would like Rumple to do to her, she knew it was not Rumplestiltskin who had taken her this time. It was an all together different man, someone who fit the tall, dark and handsome description almost too perfectly. And yet Belle had only really been alert to the menace in his eyes, her frightened instincts urging her to run. 

There hadn't been much room to maneuver inside her library. The book cases crowded about, the paths between them narrow. The man had waited until she had wandered deep into the stacks of books before making his presence known. Belle had recognized him in an instant, though she did not know his name. But she remembered him from the time she had been imprisoned inside the Evil Queen's tower. 

She had also remembered how he had back handed her across the face. Belle had nursed an ugly bruise for her reveal that she did not know the Dark One's fatal weakness. And for the fact she had defiantly stood her ground in insisting she would never help kill Rumplestiltskin. 

Belle had never found out what had happened after the man had knocked her out. But she had been frantic, fearing for Rumple's life. Knowing the man was alive, and in Storybrooke, brought the fear back to Belle's heart. She didn't know what the man was capable of, if he had found Rumple's weakness, or what he would do to her and Rumplestiltskin both. 

Belle was determined to be brave. She was determined to not sit around, waiting for Rumple to walk into a trap where she was the bait. She'd lie in wait, ready for her chance to get away, a chance to return to Rumple and warn him. Help him prepare against this threat. 

Belle tried not to worry over the fact that she had woken up in a stranger's bed. Tried to ignore the fact her jacket and shoes had been removed, someone taking the care to situate her comfortably in the center of the bed. Unease still prickled down her spine, Belle slowly sitting up, ignoring the pain of her head to peer about the room. 

It was masculine through and through. And had a distinctly nautical feel to it. There was netting hanging from the ceiling, various maps spread open across a large desk. A telescope lay a top them, along with a golden compass. 

Not as tidy as it could be, Belle spied clothing hanging over a chair. She inched off the bed, wondering where her things were, but knowing she couldn't spare the time to truly look for them. Better to run barefoot, then to be caught trying to pull on her shoes and jacket. 

Her feet were unsteady on the floor. For one brief moment, Belle thought it had to do with the fact she had been knocked unconscious. But the background noise of sloshing water, finally got past her mile a minute thoughts, Belle realizing the room itself was moving. Rocked by the gentle waves of what she assumed, hoped was Storybrooke's harbor. 

Not at all used to being on a boat, Belle half stumbled towards the door. She had to put her hands out, to catch against the wall in an effort to keep steady on her feet. This was a first for her, Belle never having been on a ship before. Not even when she had been a princess of a poor kingdom, her overprotective father insisting she remain home where it was safe. 

But home hadn't been as safe as her father pretended it to be. And once Rumplestiltskin had entered her life, Belle had seemed to careen from one adventure to another, thrills and dangers awaiting her, the likes of which she would never have had if she had remained with her father and married Gaston. 

Belle was determined that this experience would just be another adventure, that this set of thrills and danger would be something she could shrug off within the safety of Rumple's arms. Nothing overtly bad would happen to Rumple or to herself, this menace would be foiled just as all the others had been. 

It was easy to think that, but far more difficult to actually believe. Especially when she jerked open the door, and found the man from the library standing there. Belle immediately gasped and jumped back, startled and wide eyed with it. The man himself looked a little surprised, as though he hadn't been expecting her to be right there on the other side of the door. 

He got over it quick enough, eyes narrowing with his smirk. Belle backed up a step at seeing it, her heart quickening a beat as she tried to assess the threat the man was. He seemed so imposing, so menacing, his eyes dark with some unfathomable intention. And that was before she took note of his hook, polished silver that had a wickedly sharp tip to it. Without even drawing his sword, this man could do some damage, the hook looking more than capable of cutting tender flesh. 

Belle swallowed nervously, then took another step back as the man began to advance into the room. Any thoughts of getting past him, seemed to flee at the violent way he kicked the door closed behind him. 

"You..." Belle tried to find her voice, words stammering slowly out of her. "I...I already told you. I don't know where it is, and even if I did, I wouldn't help you kill him!" 

He just stared at her in silent regard, not losing his smirk. Belle actually couldn't stand the silence, practically ready to babble in an effort to break it. 

"So bringing me here avails you nothing." She said. "Nothing! Do you hear me?! You can't get to Rumplestiltskin this way. So you might as well stop wasting both our times, and let me go." 

"I don't think we've been properly introduced, princess." The man finally spoke, seeming to have not heard anything Belle had said. "I'm..." 

"There's nothing proper about a kidnapping!" Belle blurted out in interruption. 

"You'll find pirates are anything but proper." The man retorted, and Belle practically squeaked out in horror. 

"Pirates?!" She gave him a second look over, realizing in his tight leathers, he very much fit her image of some lawless rake. A thief, a mercenary, even a wolf would have been better than a pirate! Because Belle had heard the stories, of the pirates boozing, wenching, and roughhousing. The only law they followed was that of the sea, taking what they liked, when they wanted, regardless of anyone's else feelings on the matter. Belle had never heard of a good pirate, and she wasn't about to believe this menacing man could be any different from the ones she had heard the stories about. 

He seemed to smirk even more, reacting to the horrified reaction she hadn't been able to control. "Hook's the name." He said, using his good hand in a flourishing gesture. "Captain Hook." 

The name meant nothing to her, but she was frightened all the same. "Let me go, Hook." 

"And you are Belle, a forsaken princess of some piss poor kingdom." 

Even scared, she wanted to slap him for that, for the insult to her beloved home kingdom. Instead Belle made helpless fists at her side, silently telling herself to bide her time. She'd only get once chance, better not to waste it in a moment of anger. 

"You've done some research." Belle acknowledge out loud, pleased her voice didn't hold that earlier quiver of fear. 

"Oh I know all about you. A certain cricket was all to quick to chirp out what I wanted to know." 

"Then you know what Rumplestiltskin will do to you, if you don't release me at once!" Belle told him, and at his amused look, she decided Hook must be insane. "He'll KILL you." She stated, as though he needed that clarification. "And that's if he's feeling merciful." 

"I don't doubt he will try, once this is all over." Hook answered. "But...if you truly mean anything to him, anything at all, he'll hold off for the sake of your well being." 

"I won't be your bait, and I won't be your trump card against Rumplestiltskin!" Belle snapped. 

"You're more than a trump card." Was it her imagination, or had Hook's voice gone husky? She definitely didn't like the way he was looking at her, how intent that dark gaze was on her, how predatory he seemed to be becoming. It actually made her back up another two steps, Hook following her every inch of the way. 

"What....what am I then?" Belle whispered hoarsely. But did she really want to find out? Especially with Hook looking at her that way? She shivered, and fought the urge to cross her arms over her chest, feeling as though the pirate was staring through her clothes, to see her naked body underneath them. 

"You're going to be the means to my revenge." Hook definitely purred this time, continuing to advance on her, until Belle's legs backed into the bed. She almost yelped in surprise, putting a hand behind her, to keep from toppling onto the cushiony soft mattress. The other hand touched Hook's chest, Belle feeling a static burst of electricity as her fingers made contact with his shirt. 

She was fooling herself in thinking her hand could hold him at bay, Hook pressing firmly against it. He was way too close, invading her personal space, making her aware of the heat of his body, and the rich spice and leather scent of him. Belle didn't know where to look, disturbed by his nearness, by the look in his eyes. 

"You...." She stammered once again, Hook fitting himself against her, so that Belle bent back until she abruptly fell onto the bed's mattress. Hook smiled at her, eyes glinting as he bent over her, both his hand and his hook planting on either side of Belle's shoulders, keeping her from rolling to avoid him. 

"You...you're going to rape me." It was awful to think about, let alone say, but Belle's fears needed a confirmation one way or another. 

"Oh no, Belle. That would hardly fit into my plans." But that disturbing look in his eyes didn't go away, Hook smirking as he bent to put his lips near her ear. She held herself absolutely still, staring up at the ceiling as his lips caressed the curving shell of her ear. 

"Plans, what plans?" Belle asked, confused and trying to distract him from making her ear tingle from his lip's caressing motion. "What do you intend to do?" 

"It's simple really. An eye for an eye so it were." One more caress of her ear, then Hook pulled back enough to look Belle in the eyes. "A lover for a lover." 

Belle had no idea what he was talking about, and the confusion showed on her face. 

"Poor princess. He really has kept you in the dark, hasn't he?" Hook asked, brushing his fingers over her right cheek. "The things I can tell you..." 

Now was not the time to be curious about what Hook was alluding to, Belle trying to shake off his fingers. 

"You want revenge." She noted. 

"It's the reason you're here." Was Hook's response. 

"Then...if you don't intend to rape me....do you plan to kill me?" 

"I'd be lying if I said I hadn't considered that. But I don't think that would make Rumplestiltskin suffer ENOUGH." 

Belle was wondering why Rumplestiltskin had to suffer at all, Hook's next words making her gasp in surprise. "I can think of no better suffering for that monster, then to have the woman he claims to love, fall in love with another, with ME." 

Startled one moment, then laughing the next, Belle shook with her amusement. "Then you've already lost. Because I will NEVER love you." 

"Hasn't anyone taught you to never say never?" Hook asked, hardly appearing bothered by her reaction. 

"You really are insane." Belle said in response. "It doesn't matter how long you hold me prisoner, what you do, what you say. I will ALWAYS choose Rumplestiltskin. My heart belongs with HIM." 

She followed that proclamation with action, raising her knee fast and violent, to slam into Hook's groin. The pirate let out a surprised sound, a pain filled grunt following his collapse on top of her. Belle quickly shoved him aside, and made a break for the door, her stocking clad feet slipping, the rocking of the boat adding to her shaky flight. 

The hall leading away from the bedroom was narrow, with no portholes on either wall. Belle ran all the way, reaching the steps leading upwards before Hook recovered enough to let out an angry bellow of her name. 

"BELLE!" 

Cringing, but not stopping, Belle ran up the steps. Another hall awaited her, wider this time, with closed doors along the way. At the very end, she could see sunlight filtering down from an opening. There were steps there, ones she bolted for. 

Thinking she was going to make it, Belle was stopped short by the sight that awaited her top side. Barely looking at the large ship she was on, all Belle could do was gape and stare, seeing nothing but open water for miles all around her. It made her wonder just where Storybrooke was, in what direction it lay, how many miles they had traveled, and how long she had been unconscious. 

The stomping of his boots on the stairs did not get Belle to turn around and look at the pirate. Nor did she make a run for one of the long boats hanging on the right side of the ship. Even if she could manage the strength to lower one into the water, she had no idea how far away, and how much provisions she would need, to find and reach Storybrooke. Hook had her effectively trapped, and there was little if anything Belle could do but wait and hope Rumplestiltskin would find her. 

\---------------------------------------------------------- 

To Be Continued....


	2. Two

There had been a few scenarios in his head of how things should be. Of how things should proceed between him and his beautiful captive once he got her down on the bed. A bit of touching, some kissing, Hook knowing how to seduce a woman into saying yes. Belle wouldn't have stood a chance, not with a man as determined as Hook. A man that would be attentive and intent on making her melt and accept him. 

Hook knew how things worked. Knew how MOST women thought. Sex was powerful, pleasurable, addictive, and few women had the ability to separate it and love. Princesses were no different, and neither would Belle be. He'd give to her what Rumplestiltskin couldn't, and it wouldn't take more than a few fucks for Belle to decide she was in love with Hook. 

His reasoning after all, was based on experience, Hook having broken the hearts of dozens upon dozens of women, loving their bodies, then leaving them whenever the call of the sea got too strong to resist. If sex could make women fall for him when Hook hadn't even been trying, then surely a calculated attempt would net results instantaneously. 

Hook had been cocky, he had been smug. He would have been considered downright unbearable, so confidant was he that Belle would fall into line and do as he wished. Never had he been expecting her to do more than a feeble protest, and the last thing on his mind had been protecting his groin from any attacks. 

The impact of her knee scoring a direct hit between his legs, was as painful as it was sudden. Hook hadn't exactly been dignified, when he let out his surprise, pain coloring the grunts that followed his collapse. It hurt, to the point Hook could do nothing to stop Belle from pushing out from under him, the pirate actually having to lay there and moan until the pain receded to a more manageable level. 

Nowhere near recovered, Hook had forced himself off the bed. With his balls and dick throbbing with pain, he hadn't been able to keep the anger out of his voice as he had bellowed out Belle's name. It was that anger that moved him, Hook knowing she had no real escape left to her. Not unless she wanted to try to swim back to Storybrooke. 

Some part of him that he suspected was the same part that she had violently kneed, had Hook wanting to be there to see Belle's reaction the moment she realized she was trapped. That she was trapped and at Hook's mercy, and that she had pretty much pissed him off something terribly. 

And so he had hurried after her, the pain making him stomp his feet every step of the way. All the better with which to scare her. And she was scared, judging by the way she was shivering. It actually made Hook smile, his voice softening as some of his anger cooled. 

"No where to run, lass." Hook said. "And no where to hide." 

She stiffened, her small little hands forming fists at her sides. Once he would have assumed it was a sign of helplessness, but after Belle's little stunt with her knee, Hook was wary. Waiting for the violence she might erupt into, as Belle tried to deny the reality of her situation. 

"Where are we?" Her voice was cold, calm and collected. But Hook knew better. Belle was struggling not to panic, to keep in control of a situation that was most definitely not hers to command. 

She turned at the sound of his boots on the planks, Belle just as wary as Hook was. He fixed her with a dark gaze, his eyes intent on her in such a way, that Belle took an involuntary step back. She then seemed angry with herself, her fists turning white knuckled at her sides. 

"I'll ask you again." She spoke through gritted teeth. "Where are we?" 

"You should be asking yourself just where we are going." He said. "But more than that, you should be worrying what I am going to do with you." 

Such an angry look she gave him! "You already made it quite clear on the bed, what your intentions towards me are." 

"Ah, but that was before you attacked me." 

"I was defending myself!" Belle snapped, seeming to shake with the effort to keep her fists down. 

"And a right good job you did of it." Hook said, wanting to wince and not daring to show even that much weakness to her. "But now I'm mad, and thinking a change of plans is in order." He stepped towards her, but didn't stand in front of her. Instead Hook began circling around her, Belle quickly turning to keep him in sight. 

"Of course...." Hook's tone was sly, the man giving Belle a cheeky little smirk. "I wouldn't be against you showing me how sorry you are right about now." She stared at him, pretty little mouth agape at the audacity of what he was saying. "How about it princess? Just a kiss to show you are sorry." 

"I wouldn't go NEAR your lips." 

"It wasn't my lips I was wanting you to kiss." Hook grinned, barely able to hold in his laugh at the way Belle reacted. Her bright blue eyes widened, a gasp escaping her lips as her cheeks flushed with color. And then her gaze narrowed, the woman looking with such venom at him. 

"Not even in your dreams." She sneered. "And not even if you threatened to kill me." 

Instead of taking offense, Hook was intrigued, taking another look at her. "And just what would you be knowing about THOSE kind of kisses?" 

Belle colored even further, her anger and embarrassment such, that Hook was surprised she didn't choke on them. "I...I don't..." 

"You don't?" Hook feigned surprised. "But you seemed to know exactly WHAT I was referring to." Stony silence was all Belle offered him, Hook stepping within touching distance of her. "Don't tell me you and Rumplestiltskin....." 

"That's NONE of your business." She firmly cut him off. 

He didn't quite drop the subject, tsking. "I can see why you'd find the act so distasteful then. You won't with me. I'm so much better than some old crocodile." 

Belle's eyes betrayed her intent an instant before she made a move to grab hold of his sword. Hook caught hold of her wrist, stopping her just short of drawing his weapon free of it's sheathe. Laughing, his other arm went around her, his hook pressed against her back as Belle made an infuriated sound. 

"Let me go!" She shouted, blue eyes blazing from what he could see of them. She wasn't staying still, struggling, her hair whipping around her face, Belle twisting this way and that in an attempt to get some distance between her and Hook. Her other hand beat at his chest, ineffectual thumps that did nothing. 

What wasn't ineffectual was her knee, Belle once again going for his groin. Hook just barely managed to turn it to the side, allowing it to glance off his thigh rather than the part that would have proved debilitating to such a hit. 

"Careful princess, lest you end up owing me two kisses for my troubles!" A furious look was tossed his way, Hook grinning to see it. "Or maybe you want that!" 

"Kiss this!" Belle snarled, and the little spitfire actually slapped him. His head actually turned from the force of her hit, Hook stunned and seeing stars. Belle took the chance to wiggle free of him, but his hand still gripped her wrist. He jerked her off balance, pitching her back into his arms. 

"See princess, I knew you'd fall for me." 

Belle groaned in response, putting a hand on his chest as if that could somehow stop him. "Spare me your perversions and innuendos." 

"Most women like my perversions and innuendos." Hook said. "They find it part of my charm." 

"I am not like most women!" Belle retorted, pushing at his chest. 

"So I'm beginning to see." Hook murmured, abruptly helping her to straighten and step free of him. She put even more distance between them, Belle angry and impatient as she gestured. 

"If you can see that much, then you must see this is all pointless. That you are wasting your time with me. I will never love you..." 

"I suppose there's always the chance of that." Hook acknowledged. "But then, what were the odds when it came to someone loving a beast like Rumplestiltskin?" 

"There's a key detail you're missing." Belle said. "I actually LIKED Rumplestiltskin." 

"But I bet you didn't at first." Hook stroked his chin, feeling the stubble there. "I wonder how much time it took....Knowing the crocodile, it could have been years..." 

"It was only a handful of months before I realized the feelings I had developed for him." 

"Only months you say?" At her nod, Hook turned away, making a thoughtful sound. "How....interesting." 

"Interesting? What do you mean?" 

Hook hid a smile, finding Belle was rising to his bait. "Oh nothing, nothing." He was dismissive, starting to walk away from her. She followed, calling out his name, then quickening her steps so she could get in front of him. 

"Tell me, Hook!" 

"You're quick to love, princess." Hook sighed, as though it was the biggest pity in the world. "Far too quick, if you gave up your heart to a monster in so short a time." 

"He's not a monster!" Belle protested. "And I didn't mean to fall in love with him. It just sort of....happened...." 

"How could such a thing sort of happen?" Hook asked. 

"I spent a lot of time with him." She answered. "He was the only person I saw, the only contact I had with the outside world. It gave us both a lot of time to talk and get to know each other." 

"In other worlds, he held you prisoner, and isolated you from contact with any other persons." Hook felt triumphant. "You had no chance, no choice but to fall for him." 

Belle was frowning. "Is that what you believe? Is that what you think will happen again?" Hook didn't say anything, just staring at her. It actually made her fidget, Belle shifting from foot to foot. "I am not that easy!" 

"Oh you've made that clear as glass, make no mistake about that." Hook assured her. "But you also fit a pattern." 

"A pattern?!" Her brows drew together, Belles' frown deepening. 

"Oh these things happen all the time." Hook said. "Women making the best of their situations, falling for their abductors." Belle looked appalled at that, Hook shrugging. "Not everyone can get a happily ever after. Some people have to....settle." 

"Settle." She repeated. 

Hook nodded. "A lot of the time, settling IS the best anyone can hope for." He studied her expression then. "Have you ever had to settle? For anything, or anyone?" 

Her lips pressed together, Belle making it clear she would not answer. 

"Ah, well..." Another shrug. "I suppose it doesn't really matter..." 

Another fidget of her body, Belle seeming to come to a decision. "And you?" She asked, looking Hook right in the eye. "Have you been settling for something less then happily ever after?" 

Hook was flippant. "Well, I'd like to think my story is not yet over with." 

"Is that your roundabout way of saying you think you're going to get your happily ever after out of this?" Belle asked. "And with me?" 

"No princess, as pleasant as I'm sure it is in your arms, I doubt very much my happily ever will be found with you." He quickly turned away to hide the look in his eyes. A disturbed look that sprang forth from pain that was rooted deep inside him. Hook hadn't been exactly truthful to the princess. But he hadn't lied either, Hook avoiding answering either way. Because he did know the feeling of settling for something less, in knowing happily ever after was not for him. 

Every day he woke up without Mila by his side, Hook felt the loss of his happily ever after. Every woman he had sex with, he was settling for less, the girls nothing but poor substitutes for the love he had lost. 

It was all Rumplestiltskin's fault, that his chance for happiness had been destroyed. Hook thought it only fair, that he take from that monster, his own chance at happily ever after. A happily ever after that Belle was the key to, the woman perhaps the only person who could love such a creature. 

Hook really wasn't expecting to have anything more than fun with Belle. He was simply too hung over, too trapped by his memories and his love for Mila, and even his revenge. Belle was a means to an end, and while she would prove a delightful and pleasing diversion, Hook never for once considered she could do the impossible. That she could heal his withered heart, and reawaken the hope and the desire for something more from life than his revenge. 

Hook wasn't in this for love, and he wasn't in this for happily ever after. The best he could hope for, was to see Rumplestiltskin broken by the loss of Belle. It would probably be the last sight Hook saw too, the pirate sure that Rumplestiltskin would at last kill him. 

Hook didn't mind the thought of dying. Just so long as he first accomplished what he set out to do. The crocodile needed to pay, needed to know a taste of the kind of hurt and pain he had dealt out on a daily basis. With Belle secure in his keep, Hook finally had the means to accomplish that. 

"I'd go and get comfortable." Hook said, glancing over his shoulder at Belle. He had managed to push back the pain, his expression a mask that guarded his true thoughts and feelings from the woman. "It's going to be a long journey, and the sailing won't always be this smooth." 

"Just where are you taking me?" Belle asked, moving to follow him. 

"A place I know well." Hook answered. But he wasn't heading back below deck, instead walking to the rail. He was already drawing a collapsible telescope from his coat's pocket, his fingers making the adjustments needed for it's use. "Never land." 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

To Be Continued...


	3. Three

The moments that followed Hook's words, were swallowed up in silence. Belle was simply too shocked to do much of anything, not even gasping in response. If the pirate was disappointed by her lack of reaction, he hid it well, Hook eyeing the telescope and the adjustments he was continuing to make. But a smile hinted at the corners of his mouth, Belle blinking than narrowing her eyes at it in annoyance. 

Wishing for rather than suspecting, Belle would accuse him of teasing her. Hook would lock eyes with hers, that smile curving his lips and sending a shiver down her spine at it's lewd suggestiveness. 

"Trust me princess. When I do tease you, it will be with more than just words." 

He'd actually laugh in response to her blush, a warm throaty sound of amusement that wasn't as mean as she had expected it to sound. But still it grated on her nerves, Belle hardly wanting to amuse him. Nor did she want to guess at what he meant, Belle more than a little knowledgeable about the things that went on between men and women thanks to the wealth of information available to her in Storybrooke. 

It wasn't just sex, and lover's passion, that she had read up on. Belle loved books, almost to the point of obsession. Back in the Enchanted Kingdom Belle had read any and all that she could get her hands on. It was much the same in Storybrooke, but the topics had been expanded, details explicit, information vast. Belle hadn't even made a dent in the large amount of books found in Storybrooke's library, finding she had more than a single person could ever hope to read. 

At least not in the average's person's lifetime! The library's vast selection, had been the first and only thing to make Belle envy Rumplestiltskin's immortality. But as much as she wanted to read, Belle also wanted to experience. To live life not from the safe pages of her books, but to go and have adventures, love, and happiness. She wanted the freedom to choose the time, place, and people she experienced those things with. 

Hook was most decidedly not one of those people. And even if Neverland WAS real, it was not a place she wanted to go. Not without Rumplestiltskin by her side, and a suitcase or two packed. Not that Belle knew what to bring to such a place, aside from some clean clothes. Neverland had never, ever seemed like an ideal vacation destination, the land in her books a place for children and pirates. 

It still amazed her, that the books in the land of Storybrooke, could have so many stories based on the lives of the people of the Enchanted Kingdoms. Of course the details were often wrong, the situations warped to the point of disbelief. Why Belle's own story had such fanciful happenings as talking furniture, and Rumplestiltskin had been a literal beast in appearance according to the people of Storybrooke's realm. 

The story of Belle and her beast also had something the real one lacked. A happy ending. Belle and Rumplestiltskin were still trying to achieve it, their happily ever after continuing to elude them. Hook had just made himself the latest obstacle in their path, and Belle wondered how rough things would get if Neverland was involved. 

She wasn't sure what to expect from Neverland. Wasn't sure what could and could not be believed. Neverland was a place Belle hadn't been familiar with until she had stumbled upon the story of Peter Pan in Storybrooke's library. Now she was wondering just how many other stories that she had read, were based on real people and events, lands sealed away from Storybrooke and the Enchanted Kingdoms. 

Belle was quick to accept certain things. She wasn't about to accept her role in Hook's insane scheme of revenge, but she could accept the fact that Neverland might be real, and that the pirate before her was indeed that famous captain from the stories. But Belle couldn't imagine how he intended to get to that place, let alone what twisted things he would attempt once there. 

He had already outright implied teasing, but Belle refused to dwell on that particular bit of worry. Instead she let out a deep exhale of breath, straightening her spine, as Belle gave Hook a fierce look. 

"Turn this ship around." She was the princess her father had groomed her to be, royal and commanding. Ordering not requesting, and expecting to be obeyed. But she was lacking the royal guard to enforce her demands, Hook staring back at her a long moment, before laughing again. 

"Maybe if you had said please." But he was teasing her again, smirking, and seeming far too amused by her. 

Belle hesitated just a moment, then spoke in a strained voice. "PLEASE." 

"Too little, too late, princess." Hook answered, then gestured her closer. She didn't want to step anywhere near him, Hook shrugging then looking up at the sky through his telescope. A self satisfied grin curved his lips, Hook spying something he liked. 

Belle hated that curiosity curled through her, the woman taking a step forward before she could stop herself. "Neverland can't be real." Belle said, hoping, wishing for it to be true. And knowing no matter how much she might want otherwise, she was going to be woefully disappointed. 

"Oh, it's real all right." 

"But...no one in the Enchanted Kingdom had ever even heard of that land, let alone BEEN to it!" Belle protested. 

Hook lowered the telescope, to look and tsk chidingly at her. "My crew and I have been to it. And just because you never heard any whispers of a land, doesn't mean it does not exist. It was just almost impossible to get to." 

"Then how did YOU get there?" Belle demanded, her question sounding far too angry even to her own ears. 

"The first time? Ah, that was with a magical bean." Hook shook his head. "You'll be thankful we're not traveling that way. Magic beans for all their power and worth, are decidedly a rough and wild way to travel." 

"Not to mention the beans are all extinct!" Belle snapped, and was hardly impressed at what Hook said next. 

"Luckily we will be traveling in style this time." He tapped his hook on the railing of the ship, his expression fond now. "My ship is the fastest, best there ever was. Made of enchanted wood, it's able to sail to just about anywhere given enough pixie dust." 

"Pixies....?" 

"They're sorta like the Enchanted Kingdoms' fairies, only a whole lot nastier. You'd best avoid them if you can't kill them." Hook explained, and from the smirk on his face, Belle had the feeling he had killed plenty of those creatures. 

"I bet you made a lot of enemies there." Belle muttered, a thought coming to her. If Hook had enemies in Neverland, maybe they would be willing to ally themselves with her. Maybe they might even be able to help her get away and back to Storybrooke before Rumplestiltskin had to waste time and energy to find her. 

"Oh I have a few." Hook admitted with a shrug. "But what man doesn't?" 

She didn't exactly have a flippant remark, not when Rumplestiltskin himself had enemies that numbered in the hundreds if not thousands. 

"Don't worry princess, stick with me and you'll be protected." 

"I don't WANT your protection!" Belle snapped. "And I wouldn't NEED it, if you hadn't kidnapped me. Now please...turn this ship around..." 

"Stop asking for something that isn't going to happen." Hook answered. "We won't be returning to Storybrooke. Not until after you're completely, utterly, besotted and in love with me." 

Belle really wanted to scream, both in anger and frustration. "That isn't going to happen! Rumplestiltskin will find me long before hell freezes over." 

Hook snickered. "Afraid Rumplestiltskin finding you won't be happening EVER." Belle narrowed her eyes at him, and Hook grinned. "Neverland's not exactly a place he can get to. Heh...I wouldn't be standing here alive and well, if he had been able to." 

"What do you mean?" Belle questioned sharply. 

"You can't get to Neverland with evil magic. You need my ship or a bean." 

"Rumplestiltskin's not evil!" Belle protested, and bristled at the look Hook gave her. The look that said the man thought her woefully naive and misguided. "He's changed!" She spoke heatedly. "There's good inside him, he's nurtured it, become a different person." 

"Is that what he tells you? Or simply what you want to believe?" Hook asked her. "Princess..." A look that could almost be classified as pity was given to her. "He's got you completely fooled and believing his act." 

"It's not an act, it's the truth!" Belle protested. 

"Then if he's really changed, he might just stand a chance of getting to Neverland." But she could see Hook didn't believe that was possible. "Of course..." He added, his tone and expression now thoughtful. "There's still the curse to think of..." 

"The curse?" Now Belle really did give Hook the gasp she had denied him earlier. "The curse! No! You can't take me from Storybrooke." She cast a paranoid look around, seeing nothing but water for miles in every direction. Just how far and fast had they traveled, and just where did the curse's boundary line fall when it came to traveling out of Storybrooke's harbor? 

Belle didn't know, a new kind of desperation taking her over. "Hook, please. Don't do this. If we go any further, we might run afoul of the curse." She had finally stepped towards him, touching his arm out of the sheer urgency she felt. "When...if that happens, I'll lose EVERYTHING. I'll not only lose my memories, I'll lose my sense of true self!" 

His expression was impassive, Belle unable to read the look in his eyes. "Well, that would certainly make things easier for ME." 

Her eyelids fluttered, Belle shocked and aghast. Hook continued as if she hadn't gasped, looking thoughtful as he mused. "I mean it would certainly be easier to win your heart, if you didn't remember who you were, or who Rumplestiltskin was." 

"You...you wouldn't..." Belle said without much conviction. 

"It'd be easier for you as well. In fact, it would be better for both of us if you were to forget everything." 

Tears prickled at her eyes, but Belle refused to cry. She wouldn't give him the satisfaction of being that weak. Her hands which had been fisting at her sides, raised, Belle not sure if she was going to punch him, or make a grab for that telescope of his. Certainly the telescope would make for a hardier blow, Belle tempted to use it to clobber Hook with. 

She was so upset, Belle barely noticed the smile hinting on his face. Not even after he said the following, Belle too busy sagging with her profound relief. 

"Course it's a moot point." Hook was saying. "We crossed over the curse's boundary a few hours ago. Pixie Dust does work miracles, making a ship fly, and battling even the most fiendish of curses." 

She had been about to question him on the sincerity of his claims that the pixie's magic had stopped the curse from taking effect, when another thing he had said registered with Belle.   
"Fly?" 

Hook grinned. "We can't exactly sail there on water!" 

"But fly?" Belle asked, in a state of disbelief. Hook handed over the telescope, guiding her to stand between him and the railing. Such was her shock, she didn't fight, numb as Hook helped her to raise and look through the telescope. 

"Second star to the right." He was whispering in her ear. "It's there that we'll find it." 

The telescope must have had some kind of magic cast on it, some sort of amplification spell, for Belle to be able to see as well as she did. She not only saw the stars, she noticed details about them, the lens zooming in to show beyond their twinkling light and show the pock marked surfaces of many of the stars. Not all the same color, there were white ones, and ones of various shades of yellows and grays. 

Even with the different colors, Belle wasn't sure how the pirate could tell the stars apart enough to find the one he was looking for. She supposed there was some trick to it, some secret know how that Hook had access to. Belle was left to only admire what was beautiful, or what would have been if she hadn't been feeling so desperate and worried. 

She wasn't yet worried to the point of distraction. Shocked as she was, Belle was aware of Hook crowding her, going so far as to press himself against her back. He was still gripping the telescope with his good hand, perhaps using it as a pretext to get this close to her. Belle frowned, brimming with annoyance that only increased when he put his hook down on the ship's railing. 

She was effectively boxed in, trapped between his arms. Belle wasn't sure what to do, having a feeling if she turned to face him things would not improve. He might try for that kiss he wanted, or worse and Belle refused to give it to him easy. Of course, and this thought almost was enough to give her a grim humor. If she faced him, Belle could always kick out again, slam her knee into that part of him that was effective at cooling his lusts, at least temporarily. 

But there were problems with agitating her abductor too many times. All too aware she was alone and trapped by him, Belle really couldn't risk pissing him off to the point Hook stopped playing at being nice. She inwardly sighed, then widened her eyes in surprise. They WERE alone together, or so it seemed. Belle had yet to see anyone else, and though they might be elsewhere in the bowels of the ship, she didn't think so. Not when they should be out and about, working to maintain and man the ship. 

"Where is your crew?" Belle demanded, trying to ignore the feel of her body brushing his, as she turned to face him. 

Some emotion flashed briefly in his eyes. Something like annoyance. "Don't know." Hook admitted. "Aside from Mr. Smee I haven't seen the others since before the curse hit the Enchanted Kingdoms." 

"You weren't with them when it hit..." realized Belle. "Otherwise you'd have been brought to Storybrooke with everyone else who had been cursed." Hook was nodding. "But how in the world did you avoid the curse in the first place? Was it something that sorceress did?" 

"Smart girl." Hook said, almost sounding approving. "Cora wasn't able to stop the curse, but she was able to spare a small region from being sent to Storybrooke. We were all frozen in time, the same as everyone who was sent to Storybrooke." He paused. "Worse than everyone perhaps, because we were literally in stasis. Frozen and asleep for twenty eight years." 

"Try spending twenty eight plus years locked up." Belle muttered. "The queen wasn't any quicker to release me there, than she had been in the Enchanted Kingdom." 

"Well you do make a valuable hostage." smirked Hook. Belle bristled in response. "Aw, come now princess. Don't give me such a look. You'll find I'm a much better alternative to the Queen AND to Rumplestiltskin." 

"I doubt that on both fronts!" Belle said, and planted her hands quickly on his shoulders. With all her might, Belle began shoving, trying to push Hook off balance. He laughed and took her with him, stumbling back a few steps with his arms around her. 

"You say that now, but I'm sure I'll have you singing a different song soon enough." 

She kept right on pushing, trying to get free. "Never." Belle hissed. "That will never happen. Not even if a thousand years go by." 

"A thousand is a bit of exaggeration, wouldn't you say?" Hook asked, and he was grinning. Belle inwardly fumed, realizing he was enjoying her efforts to get loose, the man liking her squirming far too much. 

"A thousand was being kind." Belle sniffed, and abruptly stopped her physical struggles. "You could have all the time in the world, and I would still not love you." 

"Ah, but lass, we DO have all the time in the world." Hook hadn't lost his grin. "Or we will once we arrive in Neverland." His eyes were flashing with his amusement, Hook relishing the things he was telling her. "Time doesn't just flow differently in Neverland, it STOPS altogether." 

"You mean..." She trailed off, properly horrified. 

"We could literally stay there a thousand full years, and not grow one day older." Hook finished with a nod. "So you see Belle, we're going to stay there for as long as it takes for you to fall hopelessly, completely in love with ME." 

Belle's lips parted, but the gasp was silent, SHE was silent. It lent an appalled air to her reaction, Belle wide eyed and slack jawed, gaping at the smug pirate. In that moment, she couldn't even muster up a response, couldn't even sputter out some angry words. All Belle could focus on was she was in the arms of a lunatic, one who had taken her not only from Rumplestiltskin but her friends, family, and her HOME. Years might go by, a hundred or even a thousand, Rumplestiltskin might not find her before everyone she knew and loved was dead aside from him. For all Belle knew, Rumplestiltskin might not ever be able to find her, leaving her stuck with the pirate. 

It was horrific, it was upsetting. It made her feel defeated in the moment, and it certainly made Belle feel helpless. Belle didn't know what she was going to do, WHAT she could do, save for praying that Hook was wrong about Rumplestiltskin's magic being too evil to allow him to find and travel to Neverland. Otherwise she was truly doomed. 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

To Be Continued....


	4. Four

She looked physically ill, what with the coloring draining from her face. Her eyes he noted, had gone glassy, as though Belle was seeing right through him. Her sweet pouty lips had not only parted in silent dismay, they quivered uncertainly, as though the words had lodged firmly in her throat. He wondered if she was gearing up to cry, and Hook supposed he couldn't blame her if she did. He had after all just dropped one heck of a bombshell, Neverland's eternity, on top of other alarming notions. But it had taken the idea of being trapped, held prisoner for an eternity if need be, to have truly subdued her. 

Hook wasn't sure if he should be flattered or insulted, given her reaction to the idea of being stuck in Neverland with him as her sole comfort and companion. Belle could after all, do a lot worse, than to spend the years with a pirate as handsome looking and as accomplished a lover as he. In fact, to Hook's way of thinking, she already had, the pirate repressing a shudder at the idea of this beauty ever allowing a gold scaled freak like the crocodile anywhere near her. 

As much as the thought sickened him, Hook also couldn't help but be curious about the relationship. About how far things had progressed between that odd pair. He couldn't imagine Belle truly allowing Rumplestiltskin to get away with much. She was a princess after all, and those types tended to save themselves for true love and marriage. And those were things Hook couldn't imagine the crocodile being willing to give her, the man too selfish and cowardly a monster to be willing to sacrifice his power on just the chance of happy ever after. 

He was a fool for less than that, for leaving such a delicious weakness out for another to exploit. For leaving the princess vulnerable to any who might choose to use her, and Hook wasn't the first to make the attempt. He didn't know what exactly had happened between them and the Evil Queen, but he was grateful that it hadn't instilled it's lesson in Rumplestiltskin. If it had, Belle wouldn't have been so easy to snatch, and Hook might have had to look for another means in which to enact his revenge. 

He had no doubt he would have found it too, but there was something wickedly poetic about taking yet another woman from Rumplestiltskin. Especially as delicious a dish as Belle looked to be, Hook's gaze growing heated, the beauty's gentle heaving bosom catching his attention. He had been right to remove her jacket, the provocative dress beneath it not only short to show off her legs, but cut just right to give an eyeful of her ample cleavage. It made his mouth wet with a gnawing hunger, Hook's reaction such that it reminded him that he hadn't been with a woman since getting mixed up with the witch Cora. 

Of course those twenty eight years didn't compare to the three hundred he had previously spent in Neverland without a woman. Even if most of that three hundred had been spent on grieving and on his quest for revenge. Hook was still as hot blooded as any pirate, his body had needs, and he would have to be numb as well as blind to not react to the experience of holding a beauty like Belle within his arms. 

Even if she was currently looking shattered, all her earlier spirit and fight seeming to have died down in response. Hook wasn't exactly thrilled with her shutting down in that way, but he did enjoy the excuse it gave him to hold her without a struggle. But holding was all Hook was attempting at the moment, given he preferred his partners to be a bit more lively and participatory when it came to the sport of bedding. It was infinitely more fun that way not to mention exciting and stimulating, and Hook enjoyed a good tussle, or so he had been telling himself right up to the moment Belle struck. 

It came with little real warning, Belle still looking so listless and distressed. And yet there she was, shoving at him, actually kicking him with those long legs he had admired. Hook fell back with a surprised sound, his guard lowered enough that she slipped free of him before he could think to grab her again. 

He took several unsteady steps backwards, Hook catching at a barrel to keep from landing on his ass. He wasn't sure if he should growl out his annoyance, or laugh in response, but then he was galvanized into action at the sight of Belle trying to climb up onto the ship's railing. Something like a scream left him, Hook lurching towards her. He actually got his hand around her ankle, and nearly got a foot to the face for his efforts. 

"Stay back!" Belle screamed, and her expression was no longer so dead. Now the spirit he had noticed earlier was there, the blue of her eyes blazing with it, and a desperation he didn't quite understand. Was she that desperate to get away, or was it she was that desperate to get back to that monster? Either one was intolerable, Hook knowing there was no way he was about to let this beauty slip his grasp. His grip tightened on her ankle, his hook catching at the ankle of her swinging foot. The curve of it fit perfectly around it, Belle trying desperately to kick free when Hook jerked her off balance, and back into his arms. 

She screamed in absolutely fury, flailing her arms, beating her fists against him. She also had several choice and colorful expressions to voice, the language such that it took Hook by surprise, because no princess should know those kind of words. 

"You've been keeping the wrong company princess." Hook said over her screams, but his voice wasn't as amused as he had tried for. Her flailing fists HURT, and Belle kept trying to get free, just so she could jump back onto the railing. 

"Go to Hell!" 

"Already been there and back." Hook muttered more to himself than the screaming woman. Her fist thumped against his forehead, the third such time such a thing had happened, and with a grit of his teeth, Hook shifted her but not to the floor as she so clearly hoped for. Instead, switching from the princess carry he had been maintaining, Hook tossed Belle over his shoulder. It wasn't that much of an improvement, the woman now kicking as well as slapping him but at least it made it easier to spank her in return. 

That first slap against her bottom caused her to still, an indignant gasp following such a lack of action. Hook didn't wait for her to recover, stalking determinedly towards the stairs that led below deck, and then she was hissing. 

"Did you just.." 

"Aye, and I'll do it again, so settle down." He said. He did a second slap on her rump the instant she tried to kick up another fuss, and that time it seemed to do the trick. "Yes, that's right. Settle down. There's much better things I could be doing to a bottom this bonny than slap it." 

Belle gasped, then gasped a second time when his hand blatantly caressed over the same area he had slapped. Hook smirked, though from her position on his shoulder, Belle wouldn't be able to see it. 

"You...you won't get away with this." She finally said, once they were free of the stairs, and heading down the hall that led to Hook's private cabin. 

"I think I've already made it quite clear why I will." Hook answered, his hand tempted to caress her once more. 

"Rumplestiltskin will..." 

"I don't doubt he won't ever stop. But it doesn't mean he will win. Not this time. Not with us being in Neverland." Hook told her. 

"We're not in Neverland YET." Belle was quick to point out. 

"Not that it matters much. Your Rumplestiltskin is just as trapped as anyone else in Storybrooke is, and pixie dust be in short supply there for the amount he'd need to bypass the curse." 

"You may think you've thought of everything..." Belle said in a withering tone. "But people aren't that predictable or that infallible. You'll make a mistake, if you haven't already, and then..." 

"Let's say for the sake of argument, I have. That your Rumplestiltskin will eventually find a way. It'll still be too late, I'll still have had my fun." 

"Fun?" She spat. "Is that what you're calling this?!" 

"No, the fun parts just the bonus." Hook shifted her off his shoulder, forcing Belle to slowly slide down his front. He wanted to moan at the feel of her body moving against his, but his words were too serious to be ruined by such a sound. "This is pure revenge through and through." 

"Revenge isn't the way." Belle said, her gaze evening out into an earnest expression. "This vendetta, whatever it is you have against him, it won't bring you peace...or happiness." 

"And I suppose letting go will?" Hook challenged. She gave a nod of her head, stilling when he touch his hook to her cheek. "Love, you have no real idea what is at stake here...what he cost me...or what I need to be at peace." 

"Then..." 

"And maybe it isn't right to involve you." He abruptly continued, and she could only nod her agreement. "But princess? You should have considered the risks before giving your heart to a monster like that." 

"Love isn't something that easily controlled!" Belle protested. "But then what would you know about that?" She demanded with a scoff. "You who think you can force my feelings to change, you who think all love needs is time!" 

"Princess, you're a bit too inexperienced and naive to be lecturing me about what love does or doesn't need." Hook told her. 

"And you're not as experienced as you like to think, if you can at all claim it can be manipulated and forced to bend to a man's will." She shot back. 

"Well then I suppose it will be a fight to see who is right about this." Hook said, nonplussed. 

"It's not a fight I intend to lose." 

"Neither do I." He grinned, and caught at one of her hair's loose curls with his hook. He let that brown silk curl it's strands around his hook, but his eyes were all for hers. "Are you prepared to get your hands dirty, love?" He asked her. "Because I'll stop at nothing to have you right where I want you. And that includes in my bed and out of it." 

"I...I'll do what I have to!" She stammered at first, but Belle's expression never lost it's fire. Hook rewarded her with a predatory smile, the curl snapping free as he lowered his arm, to put both hand and hook on her hips. Her hands immediately went to his shoulders, trying to push him away, but Belle was too weak, and Hook was too determined. 

"Will you now?" He asked in a husky tone, leaning into her, so that his mouth hovered over hers. His eyes never left hers, not even when they dipped to glance at his lips, Hook caressing his mouth overs hers at that precise moment. 

Belle made a sound, some muted protest, as she tried to step back. His fingers dug into her hip, Hook stepping forward to follow. He kept their mouths pressed together, his lips working over her trembling ones. All her unease and alarm was apparent in the kiss, Belle stiff and refusing to yield to him for even so little. He didn't care, Hook kissing her harder, impressing on her the strength of his passion with the ardent way he had at her lips. It was brutal in it's demand, all the hungry yearning and lustful longings of twenty eight years gone by, and he was then pulling at her clothes, trying to figure out what strange apparatus kept them together. 

A ripping sound was heard, Hook following that noise to place his mouth on the skin that had just been exposed. He bit down on that delicate flesh, sinking his teeth into that mouthful with the intent to mark. He heard Belle's shriek, felt the pain as she fisted and pulled hard on his hair, her other hand slapping him. He didn't lose that fevered fire, not even to the combination of the surfacing regret and annoyance over having to stop. 

But to Belle he showed none of it, completely calm and in control, and coming off downright amused as he lifted his head and looked at her. There was a bruise coloring the top of her right breast, and her cheeks were flushed with red. Hook let his eyes fill with smugness, his lips twisting into an insufferable smirk as he talked over her wild shriek. 

"Beast!" 

"Now there's your first opportunity wasted." Hook tsked. "Sex has always been a prime way to get a man to let his guard down." 

She was pulling together the torn top of her dress, trying to cover herself better. "And the quickest way to get a girl in trouble." Belle snapped back. "And I would never give you the satisfaction to being a willing participant to your molestations." 

"Then you must not be as desperate as you pretend, to want to get back to Rumplestiltskin." Hook shot back with a wide grin. "Can't say I blame you, what sane woman would." 

"You know nothing!" Belle hissed, shoving at him. "I won't compromise myself or my values no matter how badly I want to escape you! Anything you will take, you will take by force!" 

"Careful love, that sounds like a challenge if ever I heard one." He grinned at her, leaning in to steal a quick kiss. "And if there's one thing..." A quick glance at her breasts, the mark standing out in stark contrast on her fair skin. "Well make that the lesser of the two things I like most." He smirked again, his eyebrows waggling. "Is a challenge." 

He dodged her shove this time, and moved away from her. "But please. Keep thinking up all the ways this won't happen, that WE won't happen. Because in the end it won't make a difference, and it won't get you back to Storybrooke any sooner. Little by little you will bend, and then? Then Belle, your heart will be mine." 

He thought her too infuriated to actually speak, Hook backing towards the room's door. He got as far as to step outside it, the door starting to push close under his hand, when Belle broke her silence. 

"Wh...what then?" Belle demanded, with a great shuddering breath expelling out of her. "Let's say this works...that you actually get what you think you want from me? What happens then...after, when we return to Storybrooke? You can't think Rumplestiltskin will let this stand, that he will allow you to...." 

"Yes, I'm quite sure I'll die." Hook told her, and saw the shock take hold of her expression. "But then, it's not as if I didn't enter into this, not already knowing that." The door was already closing, Hook locking it behind him, when he heard Belle shout, his name on her lips. He ignored her screams, on the fact that she shouted that it wasn't too late, that Hook could still save himself. He wasn't interested in such lies, Hook knowing he was a dead man long before he had taken the monster's woman. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

To Be Continued....


	5. Five

The chair like so much of the cabin's furniture, was bolted in place to the floor. A precaution Belle had discovered was practical in it's need, the woman finding herself falling when the ship had taken a sudden and sharp turn towards the sky. Belle remembered hitting a wall, and then the floor, grunting in pain before she had realized what had happened. A look outside the cabin's window had helped, Belle gaping in muted astonishment at the sight of clouds streaming past, the water growing further and further away as Hook's ship sailed the open sky. 

She had never flown before, and a part of her hadn't believed it possible. Even with knowing the wonders of Storybrooke, and the magics of the Enchanted Kingdoms, Belle had still had a difficult time imagining flying. But it had happened all the same, Hook's ship somehow magic enough to do this, and Belle might have enjoyed the experience if she wasn't so dismayed. So upset, so shaken by all that had happened, and all that might still come to past. 

She didn't know what was worse, the things Hook had already done, or the things he might yet do. Belle was shaken by the experience, remembering it all, Hook's kiss, the sound of her top ripping, his mouth on her breast, the pain of his teeth biting down as he had branded a claim on her. Worse yet, she remember what he had said, every last word of it, from the frightening passion of his words telling Belle how her heart would be his, to the calm acceptance Hook had shown to the idea of dying. 

To Belle, that calm acceptance was just as scary as anything else he had said or done, the woman realizing he was more than insane. He was a man who had nothing left to lose, a man willing to die to see his revenge carried through. Which probably meant he was capable of just about anything, and that was the most frightening thing of all. 

Her fright made her imagine all kinds of things, entertaining all manner of debaucheries at his hand. Worse yet she wondered if he would ultimately end up killing her, when it became apparent that her heart wasn't so easily stolen. Belle couldn't help but feel sorry, for herself, for Rumplestiltskin, and for their friends and family back in Storybrooke who might never even discover just what had happened, or why. 

It was enough to make Belle want to break down and cry. But she had stubbornly refused to be that weak, instead busying herself with a shaky exploration of the room. It hadn't been as thorough as she would have liked, the ship too unsteady for much walking, but Belle had managed to find her jacket and her shoes, and something far more troubling. Women's clothes, a fair abundance of them, stuffed in a chest. It made her blood run cold to see that, Belle realizing her kidnapping hadn't been an impulsive act. Hook had to have been planning this for a while, if he sought to provide her with not one, not two, but several change of outfits. 

Worse yet, there had been another chest, with more clothes, and more things a woman might need. Most of all alarming had been the selection of undergarments, the lacy fabrics and soft silks, the styles very reminiscent of the most scandalous type of garments the Enchanted Realm had been capable of. 

They wren' anywhere as bad as some of the clothing that existed in Storybrooke, but Belle was still taken aback and appalled. She couldn't imagine wearing any of these things, let alone wearing them for Hook as the pirate had so clearly intended. And so she had ended her exploration of the room, putting on her shoes, and buttoning her jacket up to her neck. That hadn't done much to make Belle feel better, though the jacket had helped to cover the torn top of her dress, and more importantly hide the offending sight of the bruise that colored the top of her right breast. 

That bruise made her shiver, actually shudder in revulsion, Belle unable to keep from thinking on how it had happened. On how scary the whole experience had been, Hook's mouth hot and eager, so possessive and demanding, and Belle could hardly believe she had been able to stop him. But she didn't believe his stopping to be anything more than a temporary reprieve, which left her fearing their next encounter. 

That encounter wouldn't come until hours later. Belle would still be sitting in a chair, studiously avoiding the bed completely, as she stared down at the open book on her lap.She didn't even try to make sense of the words, too wired and lost in thought to truly read. She was in a panicked mood, a mode Belle had been in practically from the start, the situation with Hook only seeming to grow worse with every passing minute. But she wouldn't cry, though a part of her was wanting instead to start screaming. She did neither, going rigid in her seat, at the sound of the lock turning. 

Debating on whether to greet him, and if so, how, Belle glanced up from the book she hadn't been reading. Her fiercest glare colored her expression, Belle wanting Hook to see how angry she was with him. His reaction disappointed her, the pirate neither cowed nor repentant. Instead he smirked at her, his blue eyes holding an amused light within them. She hated that smirk, almost as much as she hated how Hook so clearly laughed at her and the situation he had thrust them into. 

Belle just barely managed to keep from clenching her hands into fists, the woman not wanting to betray her agitation so clearly. Hook might know she was upset, but he didn't need to know just how much even his smiling face upset her. 

"We made good time." He said by way of greeting. Hook closed the door behind him, and walked not towards Belle, but to the window. "It wouldn't have been as smooth a sailing if the weather had been bad." 

"You call that smooth?!" Belle demanded, but her heart was breaking. Because she was certain the ship had slowed, and that it's lazy pace indicated they had arrived at their destination. That they were already in Neverland, and most likely out of Rumplestiltskin and his magic's reach. 

"For entering into Neverland it was." Hook answered, turning away from the window he had just opened. She could hear the gentle lap of the waves breaking against the ship's sides, smell the salt in the air, but outside it was still all blue for as far as the eye could see. Which wasn't much, considering enough time had passed, that it had started to go dark outside. 

"Neverland." Belle held in her dismay. "So we are really there?" Hook nodded, his eyes carefully watching Belle for her reaction. 

"Do you doubt?" He asked her. She merely shrugged back. "Did you think to feel differently once we entered this realm? Did you think to feel the magic taking it's hold on you? No...Neverland's not like some curse, it's eternity is a gentle magic, embracing rather than grabbing." 

"Then how do you know it's working?" 

"How would you know it's not?" Hook countered, with an arch of one eyebrow. "But then I suspect you already know the answer to that. You can't have worked for the Dark One that long without learning at least a little about magic." 

"I didn't handle his magic, if that's what you're asking!" 

"Then what DID you handle?" Hook asked, and even that sounded like an innuendo. "What did he have those soft little hands of yours touch of his?" 

"Don't be vulgar." Belle said primly, and Hook laughed. 

"I'm not the one imagining the worst." He said, which made her visibly bristle with annoyance. "And your hands ARE soft. Too soft to have known real work." 

"Don't mock me." She said severely. "I am a hard worker. I cooked and I cleaned, and I kept his castle in order." Belle fixed him with another glare. "I wasn't there for whatever it is you're imagining." 

"So you're saying you were there only in the capacity of a house slave?" Hook asked, his amusement giving over to sheer disbelief. "That he never once entertained the notion of more?" 

Belle gave a slight nod, but knew to be wary. Especially with the way his eyes lit up with his grin, Hook stepping away from the window to slowly approach her seat. "What?" She demanded, cautious. 

"Just can't imagine it." He said at last. "A lass as beautiful as you...with a body built like that..." 

"Built like what?" Belle demanded sharply, feeling naked even with the jacket buttoned up to her throat. 

"You're built for a man's pleasure." He told her, his eyes taking on a dark assessing look that made Belle feel like Hook was seeing through her clothing. "Every curve and inch of you, and don't you be forgetting it. I won't." He added with a cheeky grin, coming to bend over her. "And Rumplestiltskin is either blind, or his magic has turned him into a eunuch to not have noticed it too." 

His hand and his hook each lay on an arm rest, the pirate once again boxing her in. Belle had the distinct feeling he was going to try to kiss her, and she spoke not just to stave off the attempt, but because she was angered by what he had said. 

"You speak as if that is all I am good for." She said with barely suppressed fury coloring her voice. "But my measure is far more than just my physical looks, and you'd be a fool to think that's all I'm good for." 

"Oh it's not a mistake I am making." Hook was quick to reassure her. "I don't doubt there is value in other areas where you are concerned. The Dark One is hardly that shallow, and he has always had a taste for exceptional women." 

Now that much surprised her, and Belle couldn't stop a flicker of it from showing on her face. "What are you talking about?" 

"Oh that's right, you don't know." Hook straightened and stepped away from her, but Belle wasn't relived. She was too upset, and bothered by what he implied, the anxious knot inside her, expanding in size. 

"Know? Know what!?" 

"But then it's not like he would have told you." Hook continued in a musing tone. 

"Told me what?" Belle demanded, starting to rise, the book falling forgotten from her lap. 

"Oh did you think you were the first?" Hook asked, with a smirk. "Did you think you were THAT special?" He took another step back, which was a wise decision, considering Belle wanted to slap him. "But a man has needs, and Rumplestiltskin wasn't always the Dark One." 

"S...so....he had a life before getting his magic." Belle said in a shaky tone of voice. She was still trying to wrap her mind around the idea of there being another woman, that there might be more than one, and that Rumple might not always have been the Dark One after all. It was all startling, surprising news, things Belle couldn't help but wonder why Rumplestiltskin had never bothered to tell her himself. "I can understand that." 

"But can you understand just how busy a monster he's been?" Hook asked, and Belle's temper flared. 

"He is not a monster!" 

"Says you." Hook answered calm in the face of her anger. "But now I can't help but wonder if you are the blind one, to be able to overlook his crimes and misdeeds." 

"I don't overlook them, I look PAST them." Belle snapped. "I see the man he's trying to be, the man who is trying to overcome his darkness, the man who wants to be better, who can be." 

"You see what he wants you to." Hook said, stepping back towards her. "You've no idea how much evil he's been up to, how much trouble he's been causing." 

"Oh, and you think you do?" Belle demanded. 

"I'm not the one who spent years locked in the Queen's cell." Hook countered, to which she flushed angrily. "And I'm not the one who doesn't notice when she's being followed." 

"Wh..what are you talking about now?!" Belle asked, a shiver going through her. "Are you saying..." 

"I've been watching you." Hook said, and reached up to caress the back of his fingers over her cheek. "For weeks now." 

"Weeks? "It was a confirmation to what she had thought the woman's clothing implied, but it was still chilling to hear. 

"You AND him." Hook clarified. "I had to see if taking you was really worth it, and learn you both in the process. And what an education it has been, you with your books, and him with his..." 

"His what?!" Belle interrupted anxiously. 

"He's a menace to the good people of Storybrooke. They are terrified of him, and with good reason." 

"They just don't know him." Belle protested. 

"And you do, princess?" He caressed her cheek again, then caught at a curl, tucking it over her ear, before leaning in to whisper in it. "You who are only allowed to see one side of him?" He chuckled, the sound dark and sinister to her ears. "Would you really continue to believe in the good of him, if you knew even half of what he's done?" 

"If you have something to tell me..." 

"Oh there's plenty." Hook told Belle. "And plenty of time for the telling too. WE do have just about forever here in Neverland." She pushed at him, trying to shove Hook away from her. He merely tsked, his arms catching around her waist, holding her prisoner against him. She looked up into his eyes and glared, her lips pulling back to show off her teeth. 

"Either tell me what you're alluding to, or let me go, but DON'T try to kiss me." 

"Maybe I SHOULD tell you." Hook mused, hardly perturbed by her implied threat. "But then it WOULD make things so much easier for me...and where's the fun in that?" 

Belle pushed again at his chest, and made a frustrated sound. "This isn't at all fun for me." 

"But it could be." Hook said in a solemn, serious tone. "If you'd just let yourself relax and enjoy what could happen." 

"Never!" Belle snapped, and came close to biting him when he leaned his face to close to hers. "DON'T!" 

"Why not?" He muttered, though he heeded the threat enough to not try and kiss her. 

"Because I don't like it." 

"It?" He inquired with a lift of his brow. 

"Any of it. Your insinuations, your intentions, your attempts to mock me and to kiss me." Belle explained. 

"You'll get used to it." Hook retorted. His hand suddenly brushed her throat, fingers ghosting along the buttoned up seam of her jacket. "Before we're through..." He said, smiling at the way Belle had begun to tremble. "I suspect you'll have gotten used to a great many things." 

Her anger flared, but it was met with a kind of bleak acceptance. She didn't want to imagine Hook was right, about this, about anything. But if they really did have forever here in Neverland, just how much would Belle have to bear, endure, before a rescue came. IF a rescue came. Her shaking increased at that thought, Belle not liking that Hook was still holding her, still touching at the buttons of her jacket, opening them one by one. His eyes began to gleam with a lustful light, the man appreciative of the skin he was exposing. It galvanized Belle into action, the woman shoving harder at him. 

"It isn't worth it." She cried out. "Whatever your quarrel with Rumplestiltskin is, this isn't, you shouldn't....you life isn't worth sacrificing it for." 

That got him to stop, his expression sobering some from the lustful heat he had been showing. "Shouldn't I be the judge of that?" Hook asked. "It is my life to waste, after all." 

"No one should throw their life away." Belle argued. "No matter what has happened, no matter the reason, life is a gift, a blessing we should all value." 

He stared at her a long minute, then sighed. "You are awfully young and naive, aren't you?" He shook his head, his expression a frank one of wonderment. As though Hook couldn't believe in the ideas she had just argued for, the man so hardened, so jaded by whatever he had been through. 

"What happened to you, Hook?" Belle softly inquired. "What could have...." 

"Rumplestiltskin is what happened to me." Hook answered abruptly. "He's what happened to all of us, and his crimes are the reasons why Rumplestiltskin needs to pay." 

"Yes, but what did he do?!" This time she grabbed at him when he tried to step away. "I deserve to know! If only because you've involved me in this mess, if only because you intend to rape me to get revenge on Rumplestiltskin!" 

"Rape you?" He had stopped, his eyebrows lifting in mock surprise. "Oh no, you misunderstand me. I intend to do far worse than rape you." He gave an unpleasant little smile. "You see princess, I've thought long and hard on what would be the worst thing to do, on what would give me the most satisfaction. Raping my enemy's love, or seducing her into it." 

"Bastard." Belle gasped out, and took a step back. It was no comfort to note he didn't follow, Hook just standing there, wearing that unpleasant smile and staring hard at her. 

"I'm that and more." Hook agreed. "And before you start shouting things about how it will never happen, I want you to think carefully on where we are. On how we have all the time in the world, and how the impossible seems to always happen in Neverland." 

"Rumplestiltskin WILL come." Belle insisted, clinging to that desperate hope. "He will come and save me." 

"Ah, but the question then is....will you even WANT to be saved?" Hook asked her. 

"Of course I will." Belle insisted. "You've not only taken me from the man that I love, you've taken me from my home. From the people that are my friends and family. I might never again get to see my loved ones, and for that alone I will hate you." 

"So you think." Hook answered. "But Neverland is a lonely place, and you've a track record with how well you do on your own." He held up his hand to stave off her angry reply, Hook serious instead of smirking. "It worked for Rumplestiltskin, and heavens know you must have been desperate, if your heart turned to him. I can't see how it won't happen again, now that you have similar options and a much better choice for a companion." 

"You're not even half the man Rumplestiltskin is." Belle spat out venomously. "And do not try to compare the two situations. The circumstances..." 

"Aren't that different." Hook interrupted. "He did take you from your home, your family and friends, isolated you. But I understand you're not ready to accept what will happen. So cry and scream, and rage and protest, do what it is you have to, to get it all out of your system. But eventually you will accept, and you will give in." Another smile. "You simply won't have any other recourse than what I offer." 

She glared at him in stony silence, furious and fearing that some of what he said might very well come to be true. It didn't mean Belle gave up, but the worry had formed, the anxiety over what would happen once days became weeks, and year after year passed. She was only one woman, and she was a type that craved the contact and conversation of other people. The isolation would cause her to wither, might make her insane and desperate enough to cleave to Hook. 

She couldn't let that happen, but Belle didn't know how to stop it once started. She almost wished for the rape she had thought he had intended, as if that alone would have given her the reason and strength to resist him for forever. 

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------

To Be Continued...


	6. Six

She hadn't yet cried, a fact that left Hook impressed, the pirate knowing that most women in Belle's situation would have broken down almost immediately. They would have cried, pouring out their grief and horror over the unfairness of their situation, or they would have turned their tearful eyes on him, trying to guilt his rotted heart into letting them go. Belle had so far done none of it, choosing instead to rage, burning with anger and violence, and proving to be quite a spirited spit fire. 

He held in his chuckle, recalling the choice words she had had for him. Such colorful language coming from such a sweet looking mouth still surprised him, Hook wondering just where Belle had learned to curse like a sailor. Her books? Or from somewhere else? 

Less funny was the way she had attacked him, Hook swearing he could feel an echo of the pain Belle had dealt him when the woman had kneed him in the balls. It was hours after the act, but such pain wasn't easy to forget, Hook remembering the way his eyes had crossed from it. Everything else paled in comparison, Belle's fists, and her kicks mere annoyances at best. 

Hook didn't fault her for her violence, though it did make him wary. Conscious of what she might do, what she was capable of, and was it any wonder he was making sure to keep the forks and knives out of her reach in the ship's small galley? She knew what he was doing, sitting there with her hands forming tight fists on her lap. She glared at him the entire time, Belle watching his every move, her suspicion boring into Hook's back. 

"It's just a bit of dinner, princess. Nothing to be alarmed about." He chuckled without truly feeling it, tossing the comment over his shoulder as he worked the knife in his hand to carve off slices of the dried ham. 

He heard Belle's angry huff, the woman skeptical about even that much. He grinned though she couldn't see it, Hook wondering just what Belle thought he would do next. Pepper the food with a love potion? But then that was hardly sporting, and Hook wanted to steal her heart through fairer means than that. 

Not that he had yet to make any real attempts to do just that. But it was early, and Neverland's eternity stretched out before them. He---they had all the time in the world, and he'd be a fool to risk botching his own plans by rushing. Of course, he had already come close to doing just that, Hook privately wincing as the pirate thought about how he had man handled her. He had frightened her, but more than that Hook had made Belle angry, the woman letting him know in no uncertain terms she would bite him back if he tried to kiss her again. 

Not that that took him totally out of the game. Hook would just have to be more careful, more crafty, more charming, his full seductive powers brought into play the next time he kissed her. And there would be a next time, and a time after that, and then again, and again, for as much as he pleased, for however long it took to advance his bid for her heart. And her body, a silent whisper in his head reminded him, the lust inside of him practically taking on a physical presence. 

That lust could prove a problem, but it could also prove the motivation to work even harder. It could also ruin him with it's impatience, Hook knowing it would be a test of his own strength and will to not simply quench it's fire upon the woman's unwilling body. It would be a hollow win then, all Hook's plans and hopes for Rumplestiltskin's heart break minimized. Much better was the idea of having Rumplestiltskin see the woman that he loved, love another whole heartedly, then die for a moment's lust. 

It was a decision that was easier said then done, the lust strong in him. Hook hadn't had a woman in years, and Belle was beautiful. Extremely so, with her lovely face, and bright blue eyes. Those sweet lips locked in permanent pout set off a million fantasies in Hook's mind, of kissing, of getting her to open and yield, even imagining the soft cushy feel of them wrapped around his dick. 

Hook groaned to himself at that last one, knowing it was a thought he couldn't follow just yet. Fantasizing was one thing, but doing so when the object of your obsession was so out of reach, was simply not a good idea. He snorted then. Not a good idea? It was downright a disaster, considering how badly he already wanted to fuck Belle. 

Trying to shake the image of Belle on her knees, her doleful blue eyes gazing up at him as she went to town on his dick, Hook finished with the meal's preparations. He had been piling everything onto plates on a tray, and now he balanced it precariously with his one handed grip. Belle made no move to help him, sitting all prim and proper, with her fists in her lap, and her jacket back to being all buttoned up. Shame about that, because Hook liked looking at her breasts, seeing the lace of her fancy bra, and her skin framed and offering tantalizing peeks through the substantial rips he had torn into her dress' top. 

Mourning the illicit thrill denied him, Hook placed the tray before Belle. He then turned to snag a bottle off a nearby counter, his hook already tearing out the cork as he moved to sit down besides her. She nearly shifted out of her seat, Hook's arm catching around her waist, the bottle wobbling precariously on the table top. 

"Now where are you off to in such a rush?" He inquired in a pleasant tone. "And after I've taken such care and consideration to feed you." 

She huffed out an angry breath, but let him pull her back down to the bench. "It's probably poisoned." Belle accused, and Hook could only smile in response. 

"I hardly be wanting to kill you." He pointed out, his fingers reaching for one of the slices of dried ham. "And drugging you would hardly be sporting." 

"Sporting? As if any of this is fair!" Belle snapped, watching him as he bit down carefully into the meat. He chewed it several times before swallowing, then followed it with a swig from the bottle. He still held his one arm around her waist, forcing Belle to remain seated besides him. She still held herself still, trying to take as much space as Hook would allow, which wasn't much, the sides of their bodies touching, Hook feeling Belle's heat even though the fabric of their clothing. 

"It's as fair as you're going to get, given the circumstances." Hook retorted. "Now eat up." Another smile. "You'll be needing your strength after all." 

"My strength?" Her brow furrowed, her blue eyes alarmed. "But I thought you weren't intending to..." 

"I'm not." He assured her. "But if you're wanting to stand a chance of at all resisting my charm, you'll need to do so on a full and satisfied stomach." 

"Even if I was starving to death, I'd still have the strength of mind to say no to you." But she took the meat he offered, Hook's eyes watching as she rolled the slice up, then bit delicately into it's tip. The fantasy that lingered in the back of his mind, made Hook imagine that ham as something else than it really was, and it made him shift in his seat, his pants' fit starting to get uncomfortable. He quickly looked away, and took another, longer sip from the bottle. 

"You know it won't work." Belle confided to him in between bites of the ham. "I have all the reason in the world to hate you." 

"And do you, love?" Hook asked, looking back at her with a mild expression. "Hate me that is?" 

"You took me from my home." She pointed out. "From my friends, my family, my...from Rumple. But more than that, you nearly risked causing me to lose my sense of self, my memories, my personality." 

"All good reasons to hate, I agree." Hook said. "And yet I feel a hesitation to do it." 

"No, I don't quite hate you." Belle admitted with a sigh, and briefly looked away. When next she spoke, her eyes met his, brimming with an unfathomable emotion. "I feel sorry for you." 

It wasn't exactly what Hook wanted to hear, but he supposed it was better than having to work around her hate. "For me? Why?" 

"Your heart's so rotted." She said. "I don't know what's happened to make you this way, but I can't help but feel sorry for a man who not only throws his life away, he is eager to do it." 

"That's not all I am eager for." Hook said, his gaze dropping to stare at her lips. That pouty sweetness frowned, Belle shifting more against his arm, as though fearing he was about to kiss her again. 

"Don't try to make a joke of it!" She snapped, and this time he took in the whole of her face, to see more than just her frown. Her eyes were flashing, the blue a stormy color. "And don't try to distract from the topic." 

"But who is distracting who?" Hook asked, pulling her not only against him, but onto his lap. "Such serious talk won't keep me from my intentions." His hook touched her cheek, then sunk it's tip into the collar of her jacket. The top most button gave way, popping off, and clattering to the floor, before Belle stopped him. 

"What are you doing?!" She demanded, her alarm apparent. 

"You cover too much." He complained, and ignored her protesting sounds. "It's far too hot and humid for you to be comfortable like that." 

"I think my comfort is just about the last thing on your mind." Belle retorted, and shoved at his arm. No more buttons popped, Hook fixing her with a serious look. 

"That's far from true." Hook protested. 

"If it is, it's only because you think my comfort will make it easier to seduce me!" Belle snapped, to which Hook could only smile. She made an infuriated sound at that, and tried to shove off his lap, but he held on. In a few moments time, she had tired herself out, turning her nose up at the ham Hook then proffered to her with his hand. 

"I find I don't have much of an appetite." 

But he did, and it was for more than food. He held in his groan, Hook stopping himself from sniffing at her hair, and forcing himself to let go of her. Belle instantly leapt to her feet as though scalded, backing away from the table and bench though not to the counter. Hook still kept a careful eye on her, just in case she tried something foolish, like making a rush for the knife he had left out on one of the counters. 

"How long have you been planning this?" Belle demanded, crossing her arms over her chest. 

"Long enough." 

"You think you thought of everything." Belle accused. "You think you've made allowances for any and all things that could happen. Well!" Her eyes blazed, Belle furious and oddly triumphant. "You couldn't have predicted ME!" 

"Oh?" He raised an eyebrow at that, gesturing with his hook for her to go on. 

"I won't be so easily manipulated or charmed, and I won't fall into line for your game." Belle told him. 

"I don't expect you to be easy." Hook acknowledge, and Belle frowned then stepped forward as though she would loom over him. Instead she pointed a finger at him, waving it in warning. 

"I am going to make your life a living hell." Belle told him. "I'm going to make you so miserable, you'll HAVE to take me back." 

Hook stared at her a moment, before bursting out into uproarious laughter. "Dear girl, do you think your worst can compare to what I've already been through?" 

His reaction startled her, Belle looking uncertain for a minute. But the more he sat there smiling, the laughter gleaming in his eyes, the more upset Belle got. her hands going to her hips as she glared at him. 

"Well I can certainly try!" 

He lifted the bottle up in toast to her, Belle looking absolutely furious in response. "That's the spirit! If you must go down, go down fighting." 

"I am not going to go down at all!" 

He outright grinned, again raising the bottle in mock salute. "Then may the best of us win." 

She didn't waste her words on insisting that the one to win would be her, though she did maintain her glare for several furious seconds. And then her expression sobered, her eyes taking on a desperate gleam. 

"And what about me?" Belle asked, her hands coming together, to wring nervously. "Don't you realize how unfair this all is?" 

"Such is the price we all pay for ever getting involved in the Dark One's games." Hook answered. 

She shook her head. "You involve and hurt innocent people in this! My friends, my family, ME." She looked at him, eyes brimming with a sad sort of frustration. "You haven't even thought this aspect through, have you?" Belle demanded softly. "You haven't even thought what effect it will have on me, if I did fall in love with you." 

"When you do fall in love, I expect to spend quite some time making you deliriously happy in my arms." Hook countered, but he already knew what she was really getting at. "But after...." 

"You'll still die." She finished for him. "You risk leaving me bereft and broken if your mad plan actually succeeds. And that Hook, is exactly why I won't fall in love with you." She took a step back, not only sad but looking at him with pity in her eyes. "It's why I will NEVER love you. I can't. It's stupid and foolish to love a man so clearly wanting to die." 

He started to open his mouth, but could make no glib retort. Belle had hit upon the one thing he couldn't in good conscience deny, the irrefutable fact that to love him, was in effect to love a man slated to die, soon and by Hook's own choice. It wasn't right, and it was cruel, and Hook of all people knew what it was like to watch the one you loved be killed. It was a horror he hadn't quite survived, Hook having changed due to his loss and grief. He had in fact broken, and there was no denying that no one had been able to put together the pieces that had been shattered by Mila's death. 

It was a horrible fate he was intending to put Belle through, but Hook was broken enough to not care. He might desire Belle on a physical, sexual level, but she was little more than a stranger to him. A stranger who would have been no more meaningful than any of the countless women he had taken to bed, except for the one fact. The fact that she was also the love of Rumplestiltskin's life, the happy ever after that monster was too craven a coward to reach for. What she was to Rumplestiltskin, made her special in a way to Hook as well. Special in that she represented the revenge he had been seeking all these years. It might not be fair to her, but he was serious that they all paid a price for getting involved with Rumplestiltskin. Having her heart break over a dead man wasn't any better than loving a monster unable to commit, and really Hook tried to tell himself he was doing her a favor in breaking Belle of her fantastical notions where Rumplestiltskin was concerned. 

"What do you expect me to say?" He finally broke his silence. "What do you..." 

"What I expect..." Belle interrupted, with a hint of passion to her voice. "Is for you to realize your mistake and turn this ship around." The pity was still in her expression, the woman taking a step towards him. "Hook please, do the right thing, the sane thing. For me, for you, for ALL of us." 

He stared back at her, his expression hard and unreadable. Once he might have listened to reason, might have took to heart her pleas. But then he remember Mila, and the way Rumplestiltskin had killed her. That had neither been the right thing, nor the sane thing to do, and Hook didn't see why he should be any better than Rumplestiltskin had failed to be. 

"Does that all of us include Rumplestiltskin?" He asked in a harsh tone of voice. "Or is his happiness just an added bonus to my developing a conscience." He let out a short, angry bark of laughter. "It's too little, too late for that, even if I wasn't a pirate." 

She recoiled at that, the pity giving way to pure frustration and sadness. Hook wondered if Belle still felt sorry for him, even just a little, but he didn't make a move towards offering comfort. 

"You're just going to have to accept this." Hook continued, in no less sterner a tone. "The life as you knew it is over. And there is nothing that is going to change that." 

Belle blinked rapidly several times, as though fighting back the tears she had thus far been too proud to cry. He almost felt bad then, that this proud, spirited woman could at last be reduced to crying because of him, because of his cold hearted callousness where her life was concerned. 

"Belle." He said in a softer tone of voice, starting to stand. She abruptly shook her no, her hair's curls bouncing violently from the force of that movement. Blinking rapidly again, Belle would turn heel and run out of the small galley, the doors swinging loudly in place behind her. 

Hook stood there for a long time, longer than it took for the doors to stop their movement. He stood there staring, thinking, marveling at the small spark of doubt that had flared to life at the sight of Belle nearing tears. It wasn't a big enough feeling to get him to stop, to get Hook to reconsider his plans. But he almost felt bad for what he was doing to her. 

Such feelings weren't that easy to drown, even at the bottom of his rum bottle. Hook still made a valiant attempt, guzzling down the drink like his life depended on it. And maybe in a way it did, because Hook was certain that no matter what Belle believed, even if he gave up and brought them back to Storybrooke, he would still die. Rumplestiltskin wouldn't let the insult stand, and Hook wasn't about to die and let is revenge go unfinished. 

But he could let Belle have the night to herself. Let her go off to cry or whatever in peace, rather than continue to torment her with attempts that even he could admit hadn't been doing well towards charming her. The pirate would drink and he'd drink, and Hook would decide that in the morning he would step up his game, and get serious towards the stealing of Belle's heart. 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 

To Be Continued...!


	7. Seven

The bed was more cot than anything, stiff and uncomfortable with a mattress that was merely bare bones necessity, with it's straw stuffed pallet and pillow. It was nothing like the downright decadent luxury that laid in wait for her in the captain's cabin, but to Belle that satin and silk covered mattress might as well have been a bed made of nails for all that she was willing to sleep in it. She had shunned the bed, as well as the room, and had instead spent the night in one of the cots of the crew's empty barracks. 

She had almost regretted her decision. The cot was hardly built for comfort, the room windowless save for a small port hole that was permanently lodged shut. It left the room so that it was stifling hot, and yet Belle had stubbornly refused to remove her jacket, keeping it closed up as far as she could, given she was now missing the top most button thanks to Hook. 

Even without those uncomfortable factors, Belle would have found it difficult to sleep. She had been verging on tears, and only her stubborn will had kept her from breaking down so completely. She had kept thinking about her friends and family, and most often of all about Rumplestiltskin. Belle had also been worrying, thinking about Hook and his plans for her, not quite believing in his claims that he wasn't going to actually rape her. A part of her had kept expecting the door to the barracks to slam open, for Hook to arrive and finally accost her in that way. That he hadn't YET, wasn't as big a relief as Belle might have thought, the night seeing her through unmolested but not keeping the worries from her heart. 

Those worries had manifested in dreams, Belle spending a tortured night seeing her loved ones' struggles. Those dreams showed them looking for her, crying for her, mourning her as though she was already dead. She saw her father sobbing one moment, then viciously fighting with Rumplestiltskin the next, the men both blaming each other for what had happened to Belle. Her friend Ruby had then tried to play peace maker, and the men would turn on her, yelling at the dark haired woman for her uselessness in finding Belle. 

The brown haired beauty thought she would never forget the grief stricken look those accusations had caused Ruby to express. In Belle's dream, Ruby would then rush off, once again searching for Belle. She'd use her superior senses, calling even on her wolf form, trying to track her friend down and failing. Not even Rumplestiltskin's magic had been able to give Ruby the boost needed to do the impossible, and at her most spent, the wolf woman had let out a long, mournful howl. 

Her father, Ruby, and Rumplestiltskin weren't the only ones Belle had dreamt of. She saw the whole town rallied into the search, the dwarves turning over every stone, the fairies trying to put together clues through their spells. She saw Rumplestiltskin fighting often with others, with the sheriff, with the mayor, the man blaming one and accusing the other. Belle saw the prince work to play peacemaker, and the town driven into a frenzy that was almost panicked as they searched for Dark One's loved one. 

And finally, at the end of her dreams, Belle again saw Rumplestiltskin, the man who had dominated so many of the scenes of her manifested worry. She had seen him at his most angry, and at his most desperate, and now Belle would see him at his most forlorn. Alone in his shop, hidden away from the townspeople's sight, Rumplestiltskin would begin to break down. First erupting into violence, breaking so many of the things inside his shop. And then he would sag, a chipped cup held in his hands. Belle saw how it shook in his grip, but the man handled it so delicately, a single tear inching down his face, to plop down into the center of the cup. 

"Belle." Rumplestiltskin would moan, cradling the cup that held such meaning to them both. "Where are you? What has happened to you?" 

Belle had tried to step forward, to be more than a watcher in her own dreams. She had called out, and fought against invisible hands, Belle trying to go to Rumplestiltskin, then screaming the answer he so desperately needed. 

"Neverland!" She had cried out in her dreams. "I've been taken to Neverland!" 

But she remained just a shadow, a presence held isolated from the people in her dream. It didn't mean that Belle gave up, the woman trying harder, trying to let her voice be heard, let her touch be felt. In the end Belle had ended up screaming at Rumplestiltskin,begging him, crying in a way she hadn't been able to in front of Hook. Begging him to come save her, telling him where to find her, and finally ending with Belle trying to remind Rumplestiltskin that she would always love him. 

He never once acknowledged her, which made Belle sob harder in frustration, the invisible hands pulling more firmly at her. She cried out and moaned, then stiffened at the feel of cold metal on her skin, Belle shrieking and going wild as she was literally dragged kicking and screaming from out of her own dream. 

"Whoah! Easy there!" She heard Hook's voice say, the pirate dodging her fists. "It's just me, love." He added, looking at her strangely. His words then registered, her heart breaking again, Belle wishing he was Rumple, wishing she hadn't exchange one nightmare for another. The tears that had started in her sleep became more pronounced, thick drops inching their way down her cheeks until Belle was openly crying, and unable to stop. 

She saw the look on Hook's face change at the sight of them, the concern that had been coloring his blue eyes becoming more pronounced. He was bothered by her tears, and the fact only made her feel more miserable, Belle crying harder until she was physically shaking and ashamed, twisting away from him on the narrow cot to face the wood paneling of the wall. 

"Shhh...." She heard Hook's attempt to be soothing, felt his touch first on her shoulder, the man then bending over Belle to whisper softly in her ear. His hook drew back over her hair, the sharp tip careful to caress instead of stab. He murmured something, and Belle knew his ploy, the pirate trying to stop her crying by speaking softly but she wasn't interested in anything Hook had to say. She bit at her lip, and choked on a sob, Belle glaring at the wall with a vision blurred by tears. 

She HATED being this weak, in being made to feel this way. More than that Belle was ashamed, not wanting to have broken down at all, but especially not in front of her captor. And she most assuredly did not want his false pity and paltry attempts to calm her, Belle thinking the only thing that could make her happy at this point was if Hook would get over his madness and take her home. 

But that wasn't going to happen any time soon, and Belle understood that. It broke her heart, the woman remembering her dreams, crying for herself but also crying for her friends and family who had no real idea what had happened to her. She shook in place, and sniffled, unable to get over her depression, and unable to escape her tormentor. He continued to pet his hook through her hair, the pirate whispering softly and Belle felt the caress of his lips against her ear, the woman stiffening in response. 

"Leave me alone." She said in a hoarse, broken tone. "Just leave me be." 

"Afraid I can't do that, love." Hook said, and Belle turned onto her side to face him. He didn't move back, his face too close to hers, the woman seeing him through a sheen of tears. She glared, and angrily brought her hands up to rub fists over her eyes, trying to dry out the worst of her tears. The pirate gently caught at her wrists, his hand and his hook both in play, drawing her fists down, and then touching his forehead to hers. 

"Why?" Belle asked out loud, in that same broken tone. "Why can't you?" 

"I've have to be colder than Neverland's sea to ignore a woman in distress." Hook answered, but he didn't smile. Instead he was serious, his blue eyes appearing dark with worry and concern. "Even if..." He added "That distress was partly in fault because of me." 

"Partly?" Belle scoffed in disbelief. "You KIDNAPPED me!" 

"Aye I did." Hook nodded. "And it's not something I truly be regretting. But I am...sorry, you're hurting over it." 

"I don't believe you." Belle told him. "If you were really sorry...." 

"I'd what?" Hook challenged. "Let you go? Or never have taken you in the first place?" He tsked, his fingers touching her face, thumb tracing over the slick path her tears had left on her cheek. "Love, need necessitated this. And though I do what I must, I can't claim to enjoy distressing a relative innocent quite this much." 

Belle frowned, and saw how his gaze dipped towards her lips. His hand remained on her face, cupping her cheek, and now his thumb extend to brush one corner of her mouth. She felt the faint trace of wetness on his thumb's tip, tasted the salt from her tears on it. His claims still meant so little to her, Belle thinking so long as Hook refused to take action and let her go, it didn't matter how badly he might feel from seeing her cry. Which didn't feel like all that much, Hook's concern starting to push back, as he stared at her lips. 

"Go away." Belle began to push at his chest, trying to shove Hook off the cot. "Let me be." To her surprise he actually moved, and her heart that was STILL hurting, missed the closeness they had been sharing. It might have been a lie, and a failed one at that, but Belle had wanted---NEEDED comfort, and Hook was the only person around who could give her even a glimmer of it. But she'd never lose sight of the true deceit of that comfort, Belle keeping firm track of the fact Hook was the source of her distress. 

That distress had her glaring resentfully at him, ignoring the hand Hook offered her, the woman then turning back on her side to face the wall. She heard Hook exhale, but this time he didn't try to touch her. 

"I'm thinking you must be pretty hungry by now, though I doubt you be wanting to eat at the moment." He said. "Still, you've a standing invitation to come break your fast with me." Belle said nothing in reply, just continued to glare at the wall. "There's better accommodations to be found, than sleeping in the barracks, and I do hope you'll be content to make use of them." 

"Never." Belle started to say, then paused. "And if I did?" She asked snappishly. "Would the bed be mine and mine alone, or would I have to share it with you?" 

"Now that be something you'll have to be discovering on your own." Hook's chuckle sounded strained even to her ears. "Though I can think of worse things than sharing a bed with you." 

"I CAN'T." grumbled Belle, sneering at the wall. 

"That's an opinion I aim to be changing." Hook said, and opened the door to the room. Belle said nothing, even as he left, the woman glaring at the wall, the tears starting almost immediately the instant she heard the door click shut. Belle grabbed at the cot's pillow, and buried her face in it's rough material, trying to muffle her voice. She shook harder now that Hook was gone, and Belle couldn't stop thinking about her dreams and her loved ones. 

She pictured them all in her mind, their worried faces, the tension straining their expression. Belle didn't know what the dreams meant, if they were just a product of an overly dramatic imagination, or if she had been allowed a glimpse of reality. She didn't even know if it hadn't been a spell, some kind of magic working to connect her to Rumplestiltskin on the vain hope of letting them actually communicate. If it had been magic, it hadn't been enough, and Belle cried harder into the pillow to think of her failure to get through to the man that she loved. 

But though she cried, Belle didn't yet give up hope. She clung desperately to it, wishing, praying that Rumplestiltskin would have something in his shop, some bit of magic or spell hidden away that could do what Hook claimed was impossible. Belle didn't want to build her hopes up further, but she was also in no way ready to dash it so completely, the woman certain that Rumplestiltskin would try just about everything to find her. The people of the town would too, and not just because they feared the Dark One, but because Belle had been beloved by so many of Storybrooke's inhabitants. 

Belle even thought of the town's mythical savior, Emma Swan a woman the brown haired beauty didn't really know but had heard plenty about. She found herself wondering if Emma's power, combined with the Dark One's magic, and boosted by the fairies' magical dust, might be the key, but Belle's battered heart warned her against getting her hopes too high. 

She ignored it, building up a fantasy in her mind, the dream her most heartfelt wish to be found. She imagined the heart felt reunions that would come, of seeing Rumple and her father, and Ruby and Grumpy, and countless others. Belle cried harder in response, her joy muted because it was only a dream at the moment. Only a fantasy that didn't truly comfort her, Belle aware of the depressing and dangerous reality she faced. 

Her situation continued to depress her, and would for days yet to come. She seldom left the barracks, save to sneak into the galley and take a few bites to stave off the worst of her hunger. Belle avoided Hook as much as she could, and surprisingly, he allowed it. It was thought he pirate was respecting her grief, as though he thought if enough time passed, the worst of her depression would cry itself out. Belle didn't think it possible to get over her depression, at least not so long as she remained in Neverland, but little by little, it began to recede. It didn't go away completely, but Belle found herself bored, restless and seeking out Hook's company. 

He wasn't in the ship's galley, and he wasn't in the captain's extravagant bedroom. Neither could she find him in the ship's treasure room. or the big hall that was mostly used as a meeting place for the pirate's crew to plot out their raids. He wasn't found in either of the three other barracks, nor was he down in the ship's brig. Belle grew increasingly frustrated, having a need to see Hook, to give him another piece of her mind, or to beg him again to take her back to Storybrooke. Most of all she was lonely, craving company even if it was someone Belle couldn't quite stand. 

She'd finally start up the stairs the led top side, and there Belle would find Hook. His back would be to her, the pirate perched on the ship's railing, only one foot on the deck. He didn't turn to acknowledge her, Belle's feet relatively quiet on the ship's planks. Her hostile glare had twisted, her expression turning to one of confusion for she heard the soft throaty tones of Hook speaking, and it wasn't to her that his flirtatious words were directed. 

Frowning, Belle watched as he pulled something from his pocket. She didn't see what it was, but she saw how he leaned over the rail. She also heard the sound of water splashing, Belle wondering if he had thrown it into the water. 

"That's right, love." He said. "Brought it back specially for you." 

"Hook?" Belle said, and saw how he straightened, and got off the rail. He smiled at her, his expression one that hinted at the pleasure Belle's arrival on the deck had given Hook. She ignored it, standing uncertainly on the deck's top most step, before walking towards the rail. "Who are you talking too?" 

He gestured her to come see, and Belle heard another splash. She reached the rail in time to see a large pair of fins disappear beneath the water. Her eyebrows raised in surprise, Belle's confusion not dissipating as she turned to look at Hook. "Are you....flirting with fish now?" 

Hook let out a hearty male laugh. "Hardly." He said, and pointed at the water. Belle glanced that way and gasped, seeing a woman had surfaced. She had long platinum colored hair, that's silver sheen turned to sapphire under the kiss of the sun's rays. Her eyes were black, and curious, the woman who was bare on top save for some seaweed that clung in strategic locations across her breasts, starting to fiddle with the clasp of the necklace in her hand. Those webbed fingers had no difficulty getting the clasp open, the necklace's jewel pendant a thick sapphire set in silver that complimented her platinum beauty well. 

"You're staring love." chuckled the pirate, the blunt curve of his hook tucking under her chin. Belle HAD been more than staring, she had been standing there in slack jawed astonishment at the mermaid. 

She blinked, then flushed in embarrassment, but Belle couldn't stop looking at the mermaid. So many questions sprang to mind, Belle trying to remember what little she had read about the mythical creatures in one of Rumplestiltskin's many books. 

"So we have an agreement, Sirena?" Hook had addressed the mermaid. She was busy securing the pendant around her neck, and she gave a stiff nod. 

"That we do pirate." The mermaid said. "This jewel more than pays for safe passage on Neverland's seas." 

Belle's eyebrows raised in surprise. "Safe passage?" 

"The seas are the mermaids' domain." Hook explained. "If we want to be spending any amount of time sailing them....well there's a price to be paid." He acknowledge the mermaid with a nod, who gazed solemnly at Belle a moment, before suddenly diving back under the surface of the water. 

Belle stood there staring, trying to decide on what to ask first. "What would have happened if your...payment hadn't been sufficient?" 

"OH the usual things. Bad storms, twenty foot high waves battering my ship. The mermaids themselves waging a small scale war against us." 

Belle turned to him, startled. "Are you serious?" 

"In this? Of course. The mermaids don't take well to trespassers in their kingdom. Even Pan himself knows to tread carefully where the seas are concerned." 

"Pan?" Belle questioned. 

"Peter Pan. I'm not sure if you know the story or not. Neverland's not exactly KNOWN in our home land." 

"I don't know that much about him." Belle admitted. "I mean I've seen the story in the library's books..." 

"Ah yes. I'm not surprised that the Dark One WOULD know about him." Hook muttered, then turned surprised at what Belle had to say next. 

"It wasn't actually Rumple's library I was referring to." 

"Oh?" Hook lifted a brow at that, and gestured for her to go on. 

"That's right. You don't know much about Storybrooke or the world beyond it's borders." Belle realized. 

"And what else do I need to be knowing?" Hook inquired. "Besides the fact the crocodile is there, and held prisoner by the curse as much as anyone else is." 

She tried not to bristle at that. "I suppose it doesn't matter." Belle tried to walk past him, and Hook caught at her arm. 

"I'm curious." He said, then softly pleaded. "Humor me, please." 

"It's just that....they know of us." She said. 

"They?" 

The people of that world." Belle explained. "Oh they don't get most of the details right, but they have a vague grasp of our history." 

"Do they now?" Hook looked intrigued. "And for what purpose does it serve them to know?" 

"I don't really know." Belle admitted. "I suppose it doesn't matter. We're nothing but fairy tales to them. Stories to entertain their children." Hook hadn't let go of her arm, and now he guided her to fall into step with him as he led her towards' the deck's stairs. 

"I think its time for lunch." He said in conversational tones. "Why don't you go freshen up, maybe change into something else, and then you can tell me all about these fairy tales." 

"Why, what do you want to know?" 

"Can't a man be interested, simply for interest's sake?" Hook asked. 

"Or maybe you're just hoping to find some further thing to exploit where Rumplestiltskin is concerned..." Belle grumbled. 

"Maybe. Or maybe I be vain enough to what to know what if anything those books had to be saying about me." He let go of her arm, and stepped away from her. "Come to the galley when you're ready. I'll be sure to have a fresh fish feast worthy of such tales." 

"Fine." Belle sighed, and headed away from him. As reluctant as she was to the idea, Belle could admit that after a few days of doing nothing but splashing water on her face, she COULD use a shower. She was still very leery of actually taking her clothes off, but she thought to risk it so long as Hook was busy fixing the food, and the bathroom door had a lock on it. She'd also take the time to fetch a brush from the second chest, using it to tame the unruly hair that were trying to curl into tangles. But she didn't change into any of the clothing Hook had packed for her. She just didn't feel comfortable wearing much of anything he had packed, and Belle wasn't ready to give up the modesty her buttoned up jacket allowed her to feel. 

Belle did however wonder where the clothing had come from, though she mostly assumed it had to have come from one his crew's raids on another ship. Her thoughts ran to more than the clothing, Belle wondering again about the mermaids, about Peter Pan, and even about what she would tell Hook about fairytales. She had read a few, most notable the ones having to do with her and Rumplestiltskin, and Belle felt a keen sense of embarrassment to admit their love story had been called beauty and the beast. 

She knew Hook would have a good laugh at that, and her face flushed in mortified anger just picturing it. It almost led her to delay going to the galley, but in the end, her craving for company of any kind, even a pirate's drove her to the kitchen. 

The fish feast he had promised, was already laid out when she got there, Hook putting the finishing touches, some kind of sauce, onto the roasted sea food. It smelled delicious, better than the few bites of bread that Belle had been sneaking, and her stomach nearly growled in hungry demand. She tried not to blush, meeting Hook's eyes, the expression there not betraying any disappointment he might be feeling as the man noted she hadn't changed into any of the clothing in either of the two chests. 

"I'm not interested in dressing up like some doll for you to play with." Belle muttered, taking a seat. 

"You don't have to be dressed up for the kind of play I am interested in." Hook retorted, sitting down besides her. She resigned herself to his sitting so close, Belle reaching for a plate. Hook immediately began piling food onto it, again keeping careful track and control of the knife. Belle held back the urge to roll her eyes, and instead began eating, the act downright primitive considering she had to use her fingers to break apart the fish. 

"Here. try this." Hook said, and attempted to get her to take a bite of something he held between two fingers. 

"What is it?" 

"Just try it." He urged, and Belle let out a put upon sigh, but deign to daintily bite at the treat he offered. Her taste buds exploded, Belle nearly moaning from how good it tasted, her eyes registering both surprise and delight as she turned to look at Hook. 

"It's a delicacy in these parts. A trout only found in Neverland's waters." Hook explained. 

"It's absolutely wonderful." Belle admitted, and allowed him to feed her another bite. And then another, and before she knew it, Belle had eaten one whole LARGE trout at his urging. 

"Is there anything else I should know about Neverland?" Belle asked, wondering if the upside to this kidnapping would be developing an appreciation for the food of this realm. 

"Oh there's plenty." Hook told her. "But why tell you, when I can show you them first hand?" He grinned. "Well be nearing the main land in the coming days. And there's plenty of wonder to be had....as well as some danger." 

"Danger?" 

"Don't worry, you'll be safe with me." Hook caressed fingers over the back of her hand. Belle quickly withdrew it out from under his touch, but Hook only smiled more. "I've spent three hundred years in this realm....there's little I don't know about it. But, there's plenty of time to be discovering Neverland's secrets. You've some stories to be telling me now." 

It was a moment Belle hadn't exactly been looking forward to, the woman quickly stuffing another huge bite of a different kind of fish in her mouth. It wasn't as sweet or as amazing a taste, but the sauce on it helped to make up the disappointment. 

"There's not much to be telling. I mean...everyone knows the stories...." 

"Not everyone." Hook corrected. "I've been away from our world for quite some time, and there's many a story I haven't heard." 

"So it is fact you want, or fiction?" Belle asked. "Because I can assure you the fairytales of Storybrooke are quite different from what actually happened." 

"Both. I'm interested in both." Hook said. "Though for now, why don't you tell me your own story?" 

"What is there to tell?" Belle asked in snappish tones. 

"I'm sure there is plenty. You are a woman who was able to love the Dark One after all." 

"It's not the Dark One I love, but the man he is." Belle told him, and Hook frowned. 

"You could have picked a better man than that coward to love." 

"And who decides who is better?" Belle demanded. 

"I am not trying to pick a fight with you. I am genuinely curious." Hook said. "What makes so many women lose their better judgement,and fall for that monster?" 

"SO MANY women?!" Belle asked sharply. "Oh that's right, you said I wasn't the first." 

"I'm guessing those fairytales didn't mention his role of seducer." Hook muttered, and Belle gave an emphatic nod. She went still after he added the following, Hook muttering more about the fairytales leaving out the worst of Rumplestiltskin's misdeeds. 

"The fairy tales of Storybrooke may get many things wrong..." She said in scalding tones. "But they get the most important bits right. It was love that saved Rumple, MY love, and we are going to get the happy ending the book spoke of." 

She started to stand up, only to freeze at Hook's touch. "And how many of those stories' happy ending actually stayed that way? Life isn't a book, things keep happening, and the only real ending is when you're buried in the ground." 

She violently wrenched free of his hand, but he kept on talking. "And you're right. The fairytales didn't get all the details right. Otherwise you would have known about me, and that I was coming for you. Remember that when you think you know how this story will end." 

Belle glared at him, furious but silent. Her heart had started beating faster, Belle upset and frantic, trying to remember the stories that had related to her and Rumplestiltskin. Not just beauty and the beast, but also the one about the poor miller's daughter. That story hadn't ended half as well for Rumplestiltskin, and suddenly her head hurt as well as heart, Belle wondering what other things the fairy tales had gotten right AND wrong. The stories in the library no longer comforted her, Belle fearing the happy ending in one would be negated by the bad ending in the other. And that was before she took into account Hook, the pirate's adventure in Neverland one she hadn't bothered to read. 

It felt like there was too much she didn't know, and too much Hook hinted at but wouldn't tell her. It would drive a less rational person mad, and Belle thought she was already going a little crazy with questions and fears and not even the promise of getting to see the wonders of Neverland could break her from her worries. 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------- 

To Be Continued....


End file.
